


Guardians of Light and Shadow

by DragonSaphiraReads



Series: Fluffuary 2020 [23]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Slight Mention of Blood, and of kidnapping, everything turns out alright though, royal twins au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22819594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSaphiraReads/pseuds/DragonSaphiraReads
Summary: Prince Roman is sick of being couped up in the castle, and he sneaks out to go for a ride in the woods where there are some unsavory people waiting for him. Thankfully, his guards are never too far behind him.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Morality | Patton
Series: Fluffuary 2020 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619986
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Guardians of Light and Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Like listening to podfics? You can listen to this oneshot on my YT channel here https://youtu.be/1o0kwuaWLp0

Roman peeked around the corner, holding the bottom of his cloak so it wouldn’t billow around him. He was trying to sneak out through a rarely used servant hallway, but he wouldn’t get careless. The prince hadn’t been outside for more than a few minutes in weeks, and he was going stir crazy. 

It had been a tough task to ditch his bodyguards. Virgil specifically had an uncanny ability to follow him as close as a shadow, but he’d manage to lose him while he was distracted talking to his brother’s guards. 

Roman sighed, turning the corner and immediately slamming into someone, sending them both onto the ground. The prince looked up anxiously, worried that he’d been found out. 

He let out a silent breath when it was a young servant girl instead, one he knew he could trust. “Oh, I’m so sorry Annie, I didn’t hear you coming!” He quickly got to his feet and offered her a hand. 

Annie shook her head, taking his hand and graciously rising to her feet, brushing her skirts out. “No, no, it’s my fault for not looking where I was going. I’m sorry, your highness.” Her voice was small, and she kept her head down like he was going to shout at her. Roman waved his hands in the air quickly, touching her arm so she would meet his eyes. 

“No, it’s my fault because I shouldn’t even be here! I’m going for a little ride, so if you see my guards, you didn’t see me, ok?”

Annie nodded slowly. “But what if you get in trouble, your highness? The woods are dangerous, that’s what everyone says.”

Roman patted the sheath at his side confidently. “I can protect myself, don’t worry your pretty little head about it!”

She waved him off as he headed to the stables. Annie worked in the kitchens, and she always snuck him little treats when he went in there late at night. She wasn’t very talkative, so he knew she would keep quiet about seeing him like he’d asked.

All he wanted was to take a ride through the woods, feel the wind in his hair and get away from his responsibilities. Ever since he and his brother had turned eighteen, they had been expected to attend the same boring meetings that their mother had taken care of previously. Hearings from their noble families, petitions from the common people, overseeing trade with the neighboring kingdoms. Things that were important but utterly mind numbing. 

He blew a strand of hair from his face, ducking into the stables and into the stall with his horse, Spirit. She was a beautiful creature, fast and intelligent and named for her free spirit and attitude, which he loved. 

The horse nickered as he approached, and she tossed her head in annoyance. Roman snickered quietly, running his hand through her mane. “I know, I’m sorry girl, mother’s refused to let me leave the castle all week. I had to sneak out to see you, but I’m here now. Are you ready to go for a run?”

Spirit stomped the ground, and Roman took that as a yes. He quickly saddled her, leading her outside and hopping on, letting her run at her own pace. She took off the moment she hit the path, hooves pounding on the dirt and mane flying. 

Roman let out a laugh of delight, his cloak billowing behind him in the wind. This was true freedom! This was what he’d been missing! He felt a little frustration at his mother bubble up - she’d kept him inside when the weather was absolutely perfect for a long run like this!

He went deeper into the forest, slowing Spirit to a more sustainable pace. She could run for a long time, but he would feel terrible if she ran herself into the ground before they got back to the castle. She seemed content with the slower pace for a while, but then Spirit started pulling on the reins, and Roman had to yank her back. 

“What’s wrong, Spirit?” Roman asked when she kept tugging and tossing her head. He glanced up to survey the surrounding trees, looking for movement or eyes staring from the brush. Was she reacting to a predator of some kind? But there didn’t seem to be anything around...

“H-Help! Please, help me!”

The prince gasped at the frantic scream. It sounded like a little girl, and it was coming from further up the path. He nudged Spirit forward, but she threw her head back and stomped at the ground, refusing to move. “What’s wrong? C’mon, let’s go see if we can help!”

She kept fighting him, so Roman dismounted instead and ran up to where the path forked. Once he got there, he found a young girl laying on the path, with her hand hovering over a dark red stain on her stomach. She couldn’t be older than nine or ten, and yet it looked like she had been attacked by someone and left for dead. 

He took a knee beside her, his hands hovering as he wasn’t sure what he could do without hurting her. “Are you alright? What happened?!”

She sniffed, looking at him with tear-filled eyes. “B-Bandits... they hurt my mommy and daddy, and then they hurt me! But I ran away!”

Roman swallowed. He knew there were some bandit groups that lived in the dense woods, but he’d never come across a scene like this. “Do you need bandages? How can I help?”

The little girl’s lip quivered, and she stifled a sob. “I wanna go home...”

“My horse is just down the path that way - let me take you back to the castle!”

Her eyes lit up at that. “The castle? Are you a prince? Does that mean I get to be a princess?”

Roman laughed, helping her up. “I am, my name is Prince Roman. And we’ll make sure to treat you like a princess!” He told her, noticing that her legs were shaking. “Can you walk? Do you need me to carry you?”

She nodded slowly, and he allowed her to climb onto his back, hooking her arms tightly around his neck. Her tight grip hit against his windpipe, and he coughed a little. “Don’t choke me!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” The girl apologized, and she did shift her arms. But her new grip was just as tight against his neck, and he couldn’t quite breathe. 

“Sweetie, please, I can’t breathe!” Roman cried, reaching an arm up to tug at hers. His fingers slipped against her arms - she wasn’t letting go. 

“That’s ok. Maybe you should just take a nap, little prince.” A different voice came from behind him. He tried to turn around, but his vision was blurring from his lack of air and all at once it went to black, and Roman collapsed on the dirt path.

~

He awoke to hushed voices and shuffling footsteps. Roman’s head ached, and when he opened his eyes he could only see blurred streaks of color. It was evening, if the red-orange light streaming through the trees was anything to go by. It made the shadows long, stretching across the campsite he was facing. 

Roman was tied up, his hands and feet bound and a gag tied tightly around his mouth. He was propped up against a tree, and when he tried to shift his legs they erupted with painful pins and needles, and he whimpered.

“Oh look, our honorable guest has awoken!” 

Roman groaned as the loud voice sent a stab of pain through his temple. Two figures approached him from a nearby tent, one tall and bulky, and the other small and bouncing on their toes. 

“It’s not polite to sleep while you’re meeting with people, haven’t you learned that already, prince?”

His title was spat at him like the word itself was poisonous. Roman squeezed his eyes shut to try and clear his vision, but he could only see vague blocks of color. 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, your highness, we’ve got you on some _nice_ medicine to make sure you stay nice and calm and don’t try anything. But it’s alright! We’re not going to hurt you... you’re much more valuable to us alive, after all.”

Roman heard what he was saying, but his foggy mind couldn’t understand what was happening. Who were these people? Why were they doing this to him? And what happened to that little girl on the side of the road?

“Your chivalrous nature has failed you this time, little prince. My girl read you like a book in two seconds!”

Then the smaller of the two figures got closer to him, and he was able to blink away the fog to recognize her.

“-ou!” He tried to shout through the gag, and the girl seemed to understand. She smiled widely, giggling. 

“Did you like my acting? I’ve been practicing! Dad says my idea for the fake blood was great!”

Roman couldn’t tell if she was mocking him or actually being serious, because the man in front of him - he assumed he was the father in question - laughed heartily. “My brilliant little girl! Why don’t you go help your mother with dinner and tell her all about your day?”

The young girl grinned, nodding and bouncing off towards the large fire in the center of the camp. Roman shrunk back as the energy around the large man changed, and he was suddenly glowering down at him. 

“My little girl spent a lot of time cooking up her little scheme to get you, and it would make her very upset if all of her efforts went to waste. So you’re going to be a good little captive prince and do what I say, right? You wouldn’t want to make my baby cry, would you?”

Roman frantically shook his head, agreeing to do whatever he needed to do. His heart was pounding out of his chest and there were tears building in his eyes, but he would not let himself break until this man walked away. 

Then there were screams from further in the camp, and the large man whirled around to see what the commotion was about. Roman’s eyes were burning and blurry from tears, so he couldn’t see what was going on, but what he heard made him want to cry for a different reason. 

“The shadows! The shadows are moving!”

As his captor ran towards his comrades to see what was happening, there was a gentle hand on his shoulder from behind him, and a familiar voice spoke beside his ear. 

“Please close your eyes, your highness.”

Roman did as he was told, turning his head away from the campsite and squeezing his eyes shut tight. Even doing that, the searing light that erupted from the center of the campfire burned through his eyelids and left him seeing stars. There were screams from ahead of him, but they quickly died off as the light faded. 

“You can open your eyes now, my prince.”

Roman blinked them open slowly, whimpering in pain as the ropes and gag were cut from him. He sniffed, throwing his arms around his savior and sobbing into his shoulder. 

Patton held him tightly, letting Roman calm down as Virgil emerged from the other side of the campsite. The bandits that had been wandering around the camp were now lying still on the ground, unconscious from either Virgil’s shadows or Patton’s light attack. 

“I-I’m so-orry! I just wa-anted to ride Spir-rit, I di-idn’t mean for th-his!”

“Shh, it’s ok, it’s ok. You’re safe, and that’s what matters. Spirit is alright too, we found her on the trail.” Patton hushed, rubbing Roman’s back slowly. 

“You’re lucky I decided to track your shadow today, your highness. Why did you leave us behind, if you wanted to go out we would have come with you!” Virgil scolded as he approached the two of them. Patton glared a warning at him, but Roman sniffed and nodded. 

“I should have... ‘m sorry Virge...”

Virgil’s face softened, and he sighed. “It’s fine, Roman. Let’s just... get you home, ok?”

Roman nodded again, looking over at the unconscious bandits laying around the camp. “What about them?”

“I’ll take care of them. We’ll arrest them and try them for abduction and treason.”

“But... there’s so many of them...”

Virgil shook his head. “There’s only ten here, and the rest of the guard should be on their way. Patton, can you please take him back to the castle?”

Patton nodded, holding Roman by the arm as they stood up, letting the prince get feeling back into his limbs. 

“I’m... sorry... this is my fault...” Roman mumbled, tears pricking at his eyes again. Patton leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, shaking his head. 

“It’s alright, Roman. That’s why we’re here, to protect you and keep you out of trouble.”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way.” Virgil told him lovingly, and Roman’s heart overflowed with love for his bodyguards and boyfriends. He was so incredibly lucky to have these two in his life, and he would never take them for granted again.


End file.
